The role of the S1PR2 receptor in the development of ovarian cancer

Epithelial ovarian cancer is one of the deadliest types of cancer, mainly due to late diagnosis that is caused by the lack of accessible information. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to provide more essential information about epithelial ovarian cancer and the cancerous process, with hope that this will allow an earlier diagnosis of the disease and a more effective treatment. To achieve this goal, I studied the role of the S1PR2 receptor and its effect on the metastatic process that occurs in ovarian cancer. S1PR2 is a receptor, which is known to have an effect on a process called epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), a process that increases cancerous properties of cells such as: aggressiveness, migration and resistance to apoptosis. In this study, we examined whether S1PR2 is involved in the EMT process, particularly in epithelial ovarian cancer. To examine it, I used ovarian cancer cells OVCAR3 that lacked the S1PR2 receptor (OVCAR3 KO S1PR2) and performed various experiments on them such as: RNA extraction, cDNA synthesis, mRNA quantification and more, while I compared the different stages of the ovarian cancer: stage1, stage2, and effusions. In addition, I compared between OVCAR3 KO S1PR2 and OVCAR3 KO S1PR3. We have seen that epithelial-mesenchymal transition occurs in OVCAR3 KO S1PR2 cells, which means that S1PR2 does indeed play a central role in regulating the epithelial-mesenchymal transition. These results indicate that S1P is a potential molecule for cancer treatment through the receptors it activates.